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Credit & Copyright: Tomöå Slovinskö
Explanation:
Have you ever seen the Southern Cross?
This famous four-star icon is best seen from Earth's Southern Hemisphere.
The featured image was taken last month in
Chile and captures the
Southern Cross
just to the left of erupting
Villarrica,
one of the most active
volcanos in
our Solar System.
Connecting the reddest Southern Cross star
Gacrux through the brightest star
Acrux
points near the most southern location in the sky: the
South Celestial Pole (SCP),
around which all southern stars appear to spin
as the Earth turns.
In modern times, no bright star resides near the SCP,
unlike in the north where bright
Polaris now appears near the NCP.
Extending the Gacrux - Acrux line still further
(from about four to about seven times their angular separation)
leads near the
Small Magellanic Cloud,
a bright satellite galaxy of our
Milky Way Galaxy.
The Southern Cross
asterism
dominates the
Crux constellation, a
deeper array of stars that includes four
Cepheid variable stars
visible to the unaided eye.
Just above the volcano in the image, and looking like a dark plume, is the
Coalsack Nebula,
while the large red star-forming
Carina Nebula is visible on the upper left.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Southern Cross
Publications with words: Southern Cross
See also: